Democrat hypocrisy: How low can they go?

I generally avoid straight politics in my letters because the lines are so clearly drawn and people so firmly in their respective camps.

But I can’t resist commenting on the impeachment circus, if only because it highlights — once again — the rank hypocrisy of the Democrats.

Now, I know Republicans and all politicians can be hypocritical. Actually, every one of us is capable and likely guilty of that particular sin.

But the Democrats take it to all new levels of depravity and in so doing, undermine not only themselves, but our democracy and our republican form of government.

And they are not alone. The press, the so-called “Fourth Estate,” the purported guarantor of governmental accountability, gleefully facilitates the hypocrisy at the expense of truth and the integrity of our constitutional checks and balances.

Let’s look at impeachment. The Democrats have said since day one that they want to impeach Trump because of Russia, tweets, mean words, hatred of immigrants, past behavior, current vulgarity, etc., etc. All of the arguments were just placeholders for their real motivation, which was revenge for beating Hillary combined with the shame they felt for losing to someone like Trump.

But, if we take them at their word, the main argument was Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia. If true, it would have been quite bad, but would it have been worse than what the Democrats actually did?

Obama literally ridiculed Mitt Romney in 2012 for saying Russia was our biggest political foe. “Hey, Mitt, the 1980s called and want their foreign policy back.” Hillary proudly claimed to hit the “reset button” with Russia after Bush had supposedly ruined relations by standing up to Putin for invading Georgia.

Obama canceled the project to put missile defense systems in Eastern Europe in a pathetic attempt to curry favor with the Russians, who were dead-set against the defenses.

Hillary, after the Clinton Foundation received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Russian donors, signed off on Russian ownership of uranium rights in the U.S.

And the Democrats accuse Trump of coddling the Russians?

How about the specific charges against the president now? He withheld military aid temporarily in order to pressure Ukraine to investigate what happened with Berisma and Hunter Biden, among other cases of corruption. No investigation happened and the Ukraine got their funding.

Not really a great moment in Trump’s presidency, but sufficient to remove him from office? Hardly. It was just the latest and best excuse to fulfill the Democrats impeachment prophecy and so they have pushed it. Fine. That’s politics.

But it completely masks over the true corruption, that a son of the former VP was receiving $600,000 a year as a kind of payoff to ensure favorable treatment from the U.S. government towards a Ukrainian natural gas company. They knew, based on the uranium deal and other transactions, that the Obama administration could be bought and they were playing their card.

And yet the press and the Democrats, who claim to be so concerned with Russian and Ukrainian influence, who claim to so desire clean government and fair dealing, ignore this little peccadillo and instead focus on how horrible it was for Trump to try and use leverage to investigate the issue.

It makes sense, in a way. If the press and the Dems aren’t interested in such blatant corruption, then how dare Trump investigate it? The audacity!

And yet, to me one of the greatest examples of abuse of executive power was the IRS scandal under the Obama administration. They delayed or denied approval of non-profit conservative groups for obviously political reasons. Lois Lerner, head apparatchik of this effort, basically admitted as much if only by her disdain for the Republican congressmen who dared to question her.

Does anyone really believe that the IRS would target conservative groups and individuals without Obama’s approval? Does anyone remember the press going after this story with any kind of curiosity or determination? Does anyone doubt that if the IRS had done this under Trump that the press would be all over it?

Lastly, how about the #metoo movement? It was used as a pretense to go after Bret Kavanaugh by taking at face value the uncorroborated testimony of a single person about his conduct over 30 years ago. Dr. Blasey Ford was presented to us as an unbiased, unimpeachable (pardon the pun) witness of Kavanaugh’s character, and yet … I couldn’t help but remember Clinton’s many accusers, how they were treated and dismissed as so much trailer trash by Democratic women and the press.

And, it turns out that Blasey Ford has done research work for a company that makes the “morning after pill,” work specifically related to that pill. Given the left’s (poorly founded) hysteria at the prospect of Kavanaugh overturning Roe v. Wade, is it a coincidence that a woman who is directly involved in the abortion issue and who knew Kavanaugh in high school would concoct a story about him? I think not.

So, it’s okay to coddle Russia, not believe women, use governmental agencies to go after your enemies, and not investigate true crimes and misdemeanors as long as you are a Democrat or a liberal.

But if you’re a Republican or conservative, all bets are off. Not only are you disqualified from due process, anything and everything can and will be done to stop you, up to and including the use of the FBI and CIA to dig up dirt on your party’s presidential nominee … during the election!

Democracy does die in darkness, but this darkness only casts its shadow to one side of the political divide. Would that the light of truth and integrity would illumine our political and journalistic institutions for all sides. That would be a nice Christmas present!

Trey Hoffman

Peachtree City, Ga.